Tag Archive | "Extinction Meaning"

A new year with new hope. Experiencing the fullness of the outdoors has been a constant theme for my nature niche articles. I will write my 500th article for the newspapers this year and many are archived on line. One needs experiences in nature to fully appreciate the natural world that supports us. Getting outdoors with family, friends, children, and grandchildren to spend time with all creatures great and small is essential.

Essential for what? That discourse will go far beyond the space allowed. Suffice it to say, “Creation Care is Essential.” There is an inalienable right for us and other species to live without us threating many with extinction. We each do our best to live and thrive. With that comes responsibility to live within our means.

When we excessively use natural resources such as coal, we threaten our own wellbeing and existence. The fundamental question I encourage we ask is, do we live in a manner that shares the world responsibly with the 30 to 50 million species that sustain healthy ecosystems? Dr. Dave Warners, from Calvin College, along with many scientists have informed us that human activities are causing 50,000 species to go extinct annually. There are practical scientific reasons why this should be prevented but they carry little influence with many people.

Bryan Pfeiffer recently wrote an essay titled the “Extinction of Meaning” with a focus built around the Poweshiek Skipperling. I asked Bryan if I could use excerpts from his article but limited space available for my column does not allow me to do it justice. Please go to his website www.bryanpfeiffer.com to read his article. He concludes, “Without the skipperling, the prairie will be a prairie depleted. And so, will we ourselves be depleted — not just of a butterfly gone forever, but also of a loss of human awareness and restraint, an extinction of what it means to love and live responsibly with nature.”

Bryan writes, “Ecosystems provide us with tangible “services” to which we can assign dollar values: mangrove swamps and barrier islands protecting us from coastal floods or storm surges, for example; forests sequestering carbon and easing the climate disaster; or even value in the peace of mind we find in the good company of wildlife. These notions don’t find much traction in the Trump administration. What good is a butterfly that doesn’t turn us a profit?”

The Poweshiek skipperling occurred in the annual NABA Michigan butterfly count reports until a few years ago. It is still found in a few other Michigan sites and Great Lakes Region. The species has disappeared from nearly all sites in its range and likely will be another of the annual 50,000 species to pass into oblivion.

Butterflies and moths have been a focus of my professional research and there is much to be learned. When I began research in southern Utah, 25 butterfly species were documented for the region and my work increased the known count to 72 species. I discovered a new species of virgin tiger moth that is named Grammia brillians.

In our region there is are also many unknowns waiting discovery. I found a breeding colony of Northern Blue Butterflies and the Michigan DNR immediately listed the species as threatened and provided a nongame grant for me to conduct life history research. I found its caterpillar feeds on a Michigan threatened plant species called dwarf bilberry. My limited work on Isle Royale added two additional species to the list of known butterflies in the national park. The point is we are not aware of the inhabitants that share the world with us.

Bryan wrote about the Extinction of Experience and Meaning stating: “What worries me more is that most Americans know little of — and care even less about — the spectacular natural diversity surrounding every one of us. We are ignorant of the rainbow of warblers — dozens of species — passing through in migration each spring.”

He further quoted my friend Bob Pyle, lepidopterist, writer, and conservationist who refers to “extinction of experience”—our estrangement from the familiar. “If we do not know what lives next to us, we will not notice when it’s gone.” My hope for the new year is that every one of us will have personal experiences discovering the natural world around us. Those experiences will develop into meaning that leads to Creation Care. Have a Happy New Year of discovery. My column will highlight nature occurrences that I hope helps us explore outdoors.